


I'll Be Home for Christmas

by vivid_vortex



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Batdad, Brotherly Love, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Canon Compliant, Christmas, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Good Sibling Cassandra Cain, Holidays, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason is a Dork, One Shot, POV Dick Grayson, POV Jason Todd, Police Officer Dick Grayson, Protective Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Ugly Sweaters, batbros, batfam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivid_vortex/pseuds/vivid_vortex
Summary: One by one, everyone started going to bed, and soon enough, Tim and Damian were the only ones left watching Elf.“How do you think we lasted longer than the others?” Tim glanced over at his brother.“Tt. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that we are too young to drink. That, and we’ve been the only ones watching these films.”“Fair, fair.”
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 4
Kudos: 146





	I'll Be Home for Christmas

December 24th, Christmas Eve.

The Wayne Manor was occupied by many different kinds of people, that was a well known fact. All the different members came from different backgrounds, meaning that they all had many different ways of celebrating Christmas.

For example, Jason, when he did celebrate Christmas as a child, he always celebrated on Christmas Eve, due to his Hispanic Roots.

Damian never got to celebrate Christmas much, but enjoyed trying the many different holiday themed snacks, as well as indulging in the themed pet clothes that always made their way onto the Waynes’ animals, including Batcow.

Most of the family had already arrived at the house, except for Dick and Jason, who were usually a little late to the party. Damian was helping Alfred with the finishing touches to the manor, like setting up the tables with plates and silverware. He placed a vase full of Poinsettias in the middle. He stepped back and made sure it looked alright, straightening a fork or two before Alfred himself came into the room, inspecting his work and nodding.

“Well done. However, you forgot one thing.”

“And what would that be?”

“Spoons.”

Damian nearly jumped out of his skin before rushing past Alfred and into the kitchen. Tim nearly stumbled into his way, his hair swaying a bit from the gust of wind the boy had created.

“Has Dick called yet?” He glanced at Alfred, currently wrapped up in a blanket he had dragged downstairs from his room.

“Not yet, but I’m sure he’ll contact us as soon as he is on his way.”

“Thanks Alfred.”

“And Master Timothy?”

“Yes?”

“Leave your cotton cocoon upstairs next time, you’re dragging it on the floor.”

“Noted.”

Tim sauntered out of the dining room just as Damian raced in again, this time, his hands were carried a bunch of spoons, which clattered in his hold with every step he took.

“Once the table is set, then you may go up and get ready. I’m sure Master Bruce would be displeased if he didn’t see you in your festive wear.”

“Tt. Do we always have to wear those disgusting and itchy sweaters?”

“Yes. I suppose we do. Now, get to it.”

Damian groaned, setting down the last spoon before dragging himself into the hallway that led to the stairs. After he inspected the table one last time, he checked his watched.

“Still on time.”

* * *

Meanwhile, things weren’t going so smoothly in Blüdhaven.

Dick was speeding home, and we would’ve already been on his way to Gotham if a) he didn’t have a day job, and b) there wasn’t an armed robbery at the local bank.

At least he had everyone’s gifts already wrapped, hell, they had been wrapped for a month. It was definitely an understatement to say that Dick loved Christmas and had been preparing for it since November. At least his excitement meant he didn’t have to worry about wrapping the presents before he left.

Once he hopped off his motorbike and ran up the stairs to his apartment, he checked his pockets for his keys.

_Dammit_

He must’ve left them inside when he rushed off to work.

Oh well. He went to the nearest window and popped off the lock, climbing out onto the fire escape before approaching his window. He always left the window open, because of the times where he either lost his keys or the times where Nightwing had to collapse inside due to a rough night on the streets.

Being Nightwing by night and a cop by day was definitely a challenge. He knew that almost all the other heroes didn’t have day jobs like he did. Clark didn’t count because he was literally an alien, and Bruce didn’t count because he could honestly leave his job whenever.

However, it was starting to have an effect on the city’s crime rates and mobs, so all his hard work was seemingly finally starting to pay off.

Once he was inside his apartment, he unbuttoned his shirt, pulled off his undershirt and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. It was nice to have a cold shower every once and awhile, but at this point, this was annoying. He had told his landlord multiple times but just gave up months ago. At least it didn’t aggravate a cut that stretched across his side he earned on a mission a few days ago.

He’d have to redo the dressing, but that was a minor inconvenience. Not drawing out the shower any longer than it had to be, he stepped out and dried off. Hanging on the door hooks were his holiday gear, which consisted of a black ugly sweater, a blue collared shirt, dark jeans and festive socks which he had picked the day before.

He didn’t waste much time putting his clothes on, ruffling up his hair one last time with a towel before leaving the bathroom. He gathered up all of his presents and thought for a second how the hell he was going to get them to fit on his motorcycle. In the end, he just decided he’d have to take his old car that he hadn’t used since he moved here.

He took a selfie of himself on the way out, sending it out to all the members of the Batfamily, with the caption, “Don’t start the party without me!” and finally set out on his drive to Gotham, taking a bottle of wine he got as a birthday gift from one of his coworkers.

He hoped that he’d at least get there by dinner. Only one way to find out.

* * *

Jason scrambled to grab his keys from his pocket. Currently, he was standing in front of one of his safehouses located close to Crime Alley with blood dribbling down the side of his face.

Still in Red Hood gear, as soon as he opened his door, he started stripping down to his tank top and shorts. He had a bit of **_“_** _Christmas Cleaning **”**_ to do before heading to the manor. It wasn’t anything too serious, just a drug bust, which ended with him falling down two stories, resulting in a small head wound. He was sure to tidy up after, leaving the dealers tied up in ropes for the police to fetch.

He rummaged through his closet, trying to find anything festive he could just throw on. Unfortunately, this safehouse wasn’t stocked up on ugly sweaters, so he settled on a long sleeve, red and green striped polo that would be just as ugly. Taking the shirt and a pair of baggy blue jeans to the bathroom, he quickly cleaned himself up, making sure to clean off the blood on his face before pulling the shirt on.

He gazed in the mirror, fixing his hair and setting it in place with hair wax, making sure to twirl the white stands so the curl would fall perfectly in place. Brushing his teeth and putting on cologne, he walked out of the bathroom feeling fresh. Jason grabbed a duffle bag from one of the spare closets and retrieved the gifts he got from under the couch. Before he sat down to put the presents in, he took his red converse and slid them on, tying a bow with the shoelaces.

After tying his shoes and filling up the sack, he collected other things he might need before slinging over his shoulder and walking to the door, glancing at his cracked phone screen, only to see that he got a message from Dick to the family group chat.

_“Don’t start the party without me!” Attached to the text was a picture of Dick sitting in a car, a smile across his face and presents visible in the back._

He huffed a bit in amusement, sending an unattractive picture of himself from below, making sure that it was only his face visible.

Once he saw it was delivered, stowed the phone back in his pocket before walking to the stairwell and heading down to the parking lot.

* * *

Soon enough, Jason arrived at the manor, knocking on the door. He had a spare key, but a part of him just wanted to have a nice entrance rather than simply walking in.

A few seconds after he had knocked, the door swung open to reveal Steph, dressed in a plaid dress. She smiled and stepped to the side, allowing him to enter.

“It’s good to see you made it, loser.” She teased with a smile.

“It’s good to be here, dork.” He slipped in, adjusting the bag on his back.

“Ah, what’s this? Santa’s brought presents?”

“Why, of course. I’m gonna set these under the trees, if you excuse me.”

“You’re excused.”

“Great.” Jason carried his sack to the living room, hoping no one would see him yet as he knelt down and set the presents carefully under their tree.

The tree itself looked amazing. Alfred, Damian and Bruce had gone out a couple of weeks before to pick it out. It stood nine feet tall and smelt like the forest. Red, gold and white ornaments hung on the branches, framed by a gold garland that spiraled around the tree. At the top. A bright 6-pointed star glowed, accompanied by the fairly lights in the tree itself.

He was definitely not the first to set presents under the tree. Many boxes sat on the tree skirt, all wrapped with different skillsets. Based on looks alone, he could tell that the boxes with the white and gold wrapping paper were most likely Steph’s, the messily wrapped plaid presents with bows were Tim’s and the neat gold presents with the white bows wrapped perfectly around them were Alfred’s. Setting his beside the gifts made him feel okay about his wrapping. The boxes were covered in red and white paper, with a thin red ribbon tied into a bow, though, they looked more like packages rather than presents. When he found a place for each of the gifts, he stood back up, sighing as he went to go put the empty duffel bag in his room.

“Going somewhere?”

Jason turned around and saw the man himself, Bruce Wayne. He was wearing a white button up, which was covered up by a green Christmas vest. He saw a smile start to faintly appear on the man’s face, which told him he could approach him without anticipation for something more. Jason stepped up and nearly flinched at how quickly Bruce moved. Before he even knew it, Bruce’s arms were wrapped around him, leaving him to only do the same.

They pried away from each other as Bruce looked over Jason, “You’re still growing.”

“Yeah, maybe a little.” Jason shrugged. At this point, he was definitely just a tiny bit taller than Bruce, making him the tallest in the family, as of now. Alfred would have to come next, then Dick, then Barbara, Tim, Steph, and so on.

“Have you said hi to your brothers? Tim was asking for you earlier.”

“Really? The replacement misses me? Ain’t that just the sweetest thing you’ve ever heard of?”

“Jason.” A low, warning tone came from his father.

“I’m kidding. I’ll go up and say hi to him, assuming he’s in his room.”

“He is.” Bruce paused, “Glad you’re here Jason.”

“Well, I’m glad I’m here too.” He smiled before shifting awkwardly, “I’m just gonna, go.. see Tim.” He excused himself quickly before heading to the staircase.

 _Too much, Jason._ He thought to himself as he fixed his white curl. Tim’s room was close to the stairs, set in between a small closet and Dick’s room. Unlike most of the residents of the Wayne manor, Tim didn’t decorate the outside of the room. It’d just be a normal room. His room’s door had a bonsai tree on the outside, set on a mini bookshelf.

He knocked on the barren door, leaning on the balls of his feet as he waited. There were faint footsteps approaching the door before the doorknob turned.

“You asked for your big brother?” Jason asked, using an overly sappy voice as he pouted.

Tim chuckled and nudged him playfully, “Shut up. Just wondering when I could get my present.” He said, matching Jason’s level of sarcasm.

“Oh yeah, this year, I got you hardcore shit. I found this vodka that I think you’d really like.”

“Hate to break it to you, but I’m too young, and missing a liver.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

Tim shook his head before suddenly hugging him. At this point, Jason was reaching his limit. He liked the attention, sure, it was something he was really used to. However, there was such thing as too many hugs, which was an argument Jason has had with Dick _many times._

Though, instead of pushing him away, he forced himself to hug the kid back. It was the least he could do.

“Just got off the phone with Dick, he’s almost here.”

As Tim pulled away, Jason let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He nodded in acknowledgement before scratching at the back of his neck.

“He always loved being fashionably late, huh?”

“Guess so. Let’s head downstairs. Cass, Steph and Alfred are finishing up the cookies. Babs is finishing up some work in the cave, but she should be done soon.”

“Fun.” Jason nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets as he and Tim walked down to the stairs. Cass, Steph and Bruce were all gathered around the dining table, icing the cookies in front of them. With a smile, Jason sat down in an empty chair besides Cass and smiled when she glanced up at him.

“Jason.”

“The one and only.”

Flashing her a smug smirk, he leaned in for a quick hug while they both sitting down. They both went back to decorating cookies silently, but it was a good, focused silence.

That is, until Dick came barging through the main entrance.

“Good heavens!” Alfred glanced over to the door, after it had opened and closed abruptly.

The sound and unexpected jump scare caused Tim to jolt, effectively messing the straight line he had been determined to draw perfectly on the baked good. The rest of the family glanced up to the eldest brother, groaning even.

“Let the real fun begin!” Dick cheered.

Out of the eight of them, only Bruce, Alfred and Cass seemed happy from Dick’s entrance, though, the others didn’t truly mean it when they rolled their eyes.

“I need help, I got a shit load- Sorry! I got a _crap_ ton of presents.”

Damian and Alfred both narrowed their eyes, while Jason pushed out his chair and walked over. Out of all his brother’s and sisters, Dick and Jason seemed to understand each other the most, despite their obvious differences. After all, Dick was one to help him with his hooded life, he was always there, no matter how far he was before. Dick grinned, getting up on his tippy toes to hug Jason around the neck.

“You’re bleeding.” His brother said, pulling away. His grin twisted into a small frown, and worry was hanging over his face. Jason chuckled, shrugged it off and nodded.

“Yeah, had a few errands before I came here. Drug bust down in crime alley.”

“I’m glad you’re not that hurt, but you should let Alfred take a look. After you help me haul these boxes in, okay?”

There would be no way to avoid Dick mother-henning him for the night unless he got the “okay” from Alfred. So, with a heavy sigh, he nodded. Stepping outside of the door, he saw two stacks, four in one and five in the other.

“You sure spoil us. How’d you even get them here?”

“A lot of struggling.” Dick chuckled, picking up the stack of five and holding the door open with his foot. Jason followed, grabbing the four presents and heading inside while Dick was still holding the door. He headed to the Christmas Tree to set them down. The presents were wrapped in a blue snowflake patterned wrapping, which made them stand out against the other red, gold and white presents.

After Dick organized his gifts in the order he saw fit, he stood up and walked with Jason back over to the table with everyone.

Tim was desperately trying to fix his now crooked line, while Alfred, Cass and Steph set their finished cookies onto the display tray. Bruce was just now starting on his, while Jason’s remained on the plate, not yet finished.

Bruce glanced up and spotted Dick, walking over to grasp him in a seemingly suffocating hug. Jason called Alfred over to the side, disappearing into the kitchen with him to discuss his small head injury. Cass and Steph spoke quietly amongst each other while Barbara finally made her entrance.

After that, the little get-together went as good as expected.

Meaning, Dick got drunk, cried and climbed up to the chandelier while Jason and Damian nearly wrestled to the death. At least they got their family photo before everything went to complete shit. Tim stayed up with the adults, only to hog the hot chocolate to himself. Steph was trying to show Cass some new app on her phone, filled with meaningless memes and short cryptic videos.

Everything started to calm down after Barbara and Bruce managed to convince Dick to climb down from the chandelier. One by one, everyone started going to bed, and soon enough, Tim and Damian were the only ones left watching _Elf_.

“How do you think we lasted longer than the others?” Tim glanced over at his brother.

“Tt. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that we are too young to drink. That, and we’ve been the only ones watching these films.”

“Fair, fair.”

And soon enough, everyone in the manor was sound asleep. However, in the very early morning, Bruce and Alfred, both dressed in sleep attire, sat at the table and ate the cookies. Once they were done, they retrieved the kids’ presents from a closet hidden by a bookcase. Luckily, it didn’t seem to wake anyone.

Despite the kids knowing that there was no such thing as Santa Claus, the two did try their best. Setting up stockings and filling them up with little trinkets, they were careful not to make a sound. Finally, when they were done, they retreated back to their rooms and went back to sleep.

* * *

In the morning, Jason, Dick and Steph were the ones to slide down the handrail and wait impatiently by the Christmas tree. Once everyone was up, they were able to open presents. One by one, they messily unwrapped boxes and opened them. Dick got things ranging from self-care kits, to heat packs for when he was sore (which was very often.) Jason received a Barnes and Noble gift card and socks mostly, though, he did thoroughly enjoy those things. Steph got video games, a book and gym shorts, and so on and so forth.

Once they were done unwrapping gifts, and cleaning up after them, the family ate breakfast, got dressed and went to the local homeless shelter.

Every Christmas, the Wayne family would volunteer at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc, and spent the day trying to spread cheer and give things to those who couldn’t afford them.

By the end of the day, they split up and went to different shelters. Most would argue that they did this for good publicity, but those who saw them that day, and anyone close to the Waynes’ tight circle of friendship knew that that wasn’t the truth.

Because no one needs to put on a cape to be a hero.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays everyone! This is really late, and I apologize, but I've been so busy painting, and finding new games and fandoms (not really an excuse but it's the truth). Anyways, I hope ya'll had a good 2019! Tell me if you'd like me to write anything else, I do take requests!


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